To lug or not to lug (on a holiday)

Is a holiday about your experience (and your relationship) or your photos?

I'm hoping to take a bit of a break sometime this year. I haven't even decided on a date or location
and I'm already trying to decide whether to lug or not to lug.

The big fat camera bag full of spare batteries, lenses, a
flash and filters is sitting on the bed.

Do you put it in the 'to go' pile or not?

For me it's a choice between one love and another.

I do most of my photography solo.

Because I love it so much I tend to stop for one photo and
move on an hour later after trialling different camera settings, swapping
lenses and sometimes even waiting for the light to change.

So you can see how that might be frustrating for my
non-photography-obsessed man.

The last time I took a solo trip it was to South East
Asia. I spent about 80% of the time
behind my camera and loved every minute of it.
I even had a muddy fall from a motorbike with my camera bag (thank-goodness nothing was badly scraped or
broken; and I was ok too).

The last time I took a break with my boyfriend I decided,
for the health of my relationship, to leave my camera behind.

We snapped a few shots on the smart-phone, put some funky
filters on them and have enough cute holiday memories to suit us. And we're still talking.

Love to hear how you make the choice. Any advice on keeping both loves in my life
is always welcome.

3
Comments

Michael Bromage

When travelling the Silk Road a mate would complain whenever I used my 'fancy' camera and took my time to capture a moment, whereas he would whip out his little point-and-shoot to capture the same shot. And in Turkmenistan 'secret police' would follow us and stop me if I was carrying my camera so we ended up using my friend's camera in this country. Back home I notice that whenever we show friends our travels he would proudly use my 'beautiful' shots to describe a place or adventure. It depends what you want to record and how you want to remember places so on a recent trip to Japan I just used my smartphone - it's convenient and takes decent pictures.

Sean O'Brien

Last trip I took to South East Asia I had a DSLR camera bag, a video camera bag, and a point and shoot. I was crossing a rickety bamboo bridge above a river with all the gear slung around my neck and "snap", the bridge broke and down I went into the river. All the gear was ruined, and I wasn't too great myself. Fortunately insurance paid for replacement gear, and medical costs, and I won considerable sympathy from my girlfriend. Tread lightly is now my moto. Yep, smartphone and app with funky filters. If that.

LE

This is soooo hard because I always regret not taking my camera when a great shot comes along and I wish I had it with me...it's also great exercise for me to have my camera with me because whenever I stop to take photos my friends or the people I'm with usually keep on walking so I have to actually run to catch up with them until I see something else and then stop again.
I've also became seperated from my tour group once in Austria because I was busy taking photos down these winding allays and the tour group moved on so I had to find my own way back to the hotel by talking to people who couldn't speak english, it wasn't a fun experince!
I think it's best to take photos when you're on your own- you can do whatever you want and take your time!